RACHEL YOUNG PHOTO | Michael Hubbard, seated, helped lead the Class of 2014′s float at the Riverhead homecoming parade Saturday.

East Main Street was infused with the spirit of Dr. Seuss at the Riverhead homecoming parade Saturday afternoon.

Riverhead High School students presided over Dr. Seuss-themed floats during the festivities, which began at 12:30 p.m. on East Avenue and East Main Street.

Leading the Class of 2014’s “The Lorax” float in a wheelchair decorated with blue and white garlands was 17-year-old Michael Hubbard, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2011.

Michael, who suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body when a gel candle exploded in his backyard, was wheeled by a classmate as fellow members of the senior class walked beside him during the parade.

Other Dr. Seuss-themed floats included the Class of 2015’s “The Cat in the Hat,” the Class of 2016’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and the Class of 2017’s “The Foot Book.”

The freshman class proved to be the big winners in the float competition, the results of which were announced during the football game. The Riverhead football team defeated Walt Whitman, 28-0, to cap the homecoming festivities.

Numerous clubs and sports teams were represented in the parade, including the Riverhead High School marching band, Riverhead PAL football and the Riverhead High School cheerleading squad.

After a walk down Main Street, parade participants marched west toward Coach Mike McKillop Memorial Field to watch the Blue Waves improve to 5-1 in Division II.

NEW BEGINNINGS COURTESY PHOTO | Volunteers helping frame the first floor of New Beginning Brendan House on Sound Avenue.

Work has officially begun on the long anticipated New Beginnings Brendan House, but to get the home finished the non-profit foundation is in need of volunteers.

“We’re very exited. The more people the better. We want to keep the project moving,” said Allyson Scerri, founder of The New Beginnings Community Center in Medford. “We’ve been going full force, really, for the past month.”

She and husband Steve are looking for volunteers to help with the project, which will serve as a home for people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries and need round-the-clock care.

They are looking for framers, electricians and plumbers, as well as cleanup crews and people to donate or help prepare lunches.

“Even guys that are willing to learn, it’s a great way for them to learn fast from professional guys,” she said

Volunteers will be needed every Saturday and Sunday, Ms. Scerri said. Those that need to perform community service can also take part, and letters outlining their service will be given, she said.

“It seems like for most people, the time they do have is on the weekends,” she said. “If we have enough volunteers we will work during the week as well.”

They have hired Roy Schweers of Schweers Construction to work as the project manager. He helped build the non-profits Medford site, she said.

“We call him the builder of dreams, and he’ll donate a day here and there too,” she said.

This Sunday three volunteers helped frame the first story of the home, Ms. Scerri said.

“We want to get the word out. There are so many good people that want to get this done for the community,” she said.

At the same time, the non-profit is still trying to raise the funds needed to complete the home, so the more volunteers the better, she said.

“Funding is difficult. We’re just going off fundraisers and the lumber bill alone is like $30,000 so the money is going fast,” she said. “I am trying to think of other fundraisers we could do.”

Those interested in volunteering should reach Steve Scerri (516) 356-5642.

Michael Hubbard, a Riverhead teenager who suffered severe brain damage in the aftermath of being badly burned by an exploding gel candle in his backyard in May, 2011, is expected to be one of the residents of Brendan House.

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | New Beginnings Brendan House on Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

Brendan House, the proposed community residence for people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries and need round-the-clock care, was granted town approval this week to house eight people, instead of the previously-approved four.

The New Beginnings Community Center in Medford, a nonprofit care group, is building the facility in an former farm house at 4079 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

In April, the group received a favorable town Zoning Board of Appeals ruling that a “traumatic brain injury facility with a second residence for the ‘house parent’” is considered a permitted use in the Agricultural Protection Zone, in which the house is located.

The approval allowed the facility to house four residents.

But New Beginnings vice president Steve Scerri told the ZBA on Thursday that when the group went for the building permits for the project, employees from the building department and the county health department asked why the group was only using four bedrooms when there are other bedrooms in the house.

“They said that if we got approval from you guys, they would be fine with giving us approval for extra bedrooms,” Mr. Scerri told the ZBA on Thursday.

The aides that will work at the home will not stay overnight, he said.

The house mother will be in a separate house on the property.

With no one speaking in opposition, ZBA members approved the request Thursday by a 4-0 vote, with one member absent.

Michael Hubbard, a Riverhead teenager who suffered severe brain damage in the aftermath of being badly burned by an exploding gel candle in his backyard in May, 2011, is expected to be one of the residents of Brendan House.

New Beginnings has been holding a number of fundraisers for the Brendan House and another one is scheduled for this Sunday, Sept. 29, at noon, at the site on Sound Avenue across from Reeve Farm.

The event is being billed as “country fair” and will feature things like pig races, duck races and food and games.

Wearing a shirt featuring the superhero’s iconic logo, he soared through the air Sunday afternoon in Calverton after jumping out of an airplane. He then turned himself into a “human bowling ball” and struck a bunch of novelty-sized inflatable pins, knocking them all down with his body.

He was the only person to have a strike at the area’s first-ever human bowling ball event. The fundraiser was sponsored by Skydive Long Island and All-Star bowling in Riverhead and benefits Brendan House, a group care facility planned for Riverhead.

“It was awesome,” Mr. Bistram said shortly after jumping. “I must have had perfect timing and the wind was just right.”

Fellow skydiver Domenick Gilio of Setauket also had a successful jump, leaving only two standing.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I tried to hit as many pins as possible with my body by spreading my legs as wide as I could.”

Nancy Reyer, whose 17-year-old son, Michael Hubbard, plans to move into Brendan House when it opens, attended the event and said she’s grateful for all the support from participants. The facility is estimated to open within the next four months.

“The community has been behind us 100 percent,” she said as her eyes teared up. “Everyone has been really good to us.”

Ms. Reyer said she plans to skydive for the first time on Michael’s 18th birthday Aug. 16 to raise additional funds for Brendan House.

Her son suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body after being burned by a gel candle that exploded in his backyard May 28, 2011. He went into cardiac arrest a week later, causing traumatic brain injury, as well as kidney failure and lung distress. Michael was originally taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center, but was moved to Blythedale that September.

Blythedale, a short-term care facility, could no longer keep Michael for the extended care he needs, his mother has said. It left her looking for other facilities.

In June, he moved to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead with much fanfare, an arrangement Ms. Reyer said she’s very pleased with.

“His physical therapy at PBMC is nothing but the best,” she said. “Michael was born there and was raised in Riverhead … Every day is a new day and he’s making progress.”

As for the unique fundraising idea, Ms. Reyer said one of her grade-school friends works at Skydive Long Island and had talked to the owners about holding a benefit there for Brendan House.

The timing was good because over the past six months Skydive and All-Star have been coming up with cross-promotional ideas and developing community fundraisers. Recently, the small business owners created a cocktail called LIV free or DIVE. It’s made with locally produced Long Island Spirits’ LIV vodka from Baiting Hollow.

All-Star co-owner Peter Sgroi said he’s happy to be a part of the area’s first human bowling ball event and described it as a fun way to help the community.

“It couldn’t be more perfect,” Mr. Sgroi said of Sunday’s fundraiser. “The turnout is great and the weather couldn’t be better.”

New Beginnings, a Medford nonprofit group that offers support for people with traumatic brain injuries and owns Brendan House, is holding a country fair Sept. 29 at Brendan House to raise funds for the facility. The event will include pig and duck races, music from the Boot Scoot Boogie Band, games, prizes and refreshments.

COURTESY PHOTO | Members of the Rotary Club of Riverhead presented a check to New Beginnings Community Center for the renovation of its Brendan House home for traumatic brain injury survivors on Aug. 6. Pictured, from left, front row: Marshall Aykroyd, Allyson Scerri and Sandi Sandi Aykroyd accept a presentation check from Riverhead Rotary president Mary Ellen Ellwood. Back row: Nancy Reyer, Rotarians Joe Ingegno, Linda Hulse, George Dupree, Patrick Wiles and Tom Lennon.

One nonprofit’s dream of having a long-term care facility for those rehabilitating from traumatic brain injuries is a few steps closer to reality thanks to the Riverhead Rotary.

The community group donated $5,000 to Brendan House, a group home on Sound Avenue proposed by the Medford-based New Beginnings Community Center, on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Rotary.

“Riverhead Rotary wanted to make a significant contribution to this worthwhile local charity,” Riverhead Rotary president Mary Ellen Ellwood said.

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | The New Beginnings Brendan House on Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

The donations will help pay for renovations for the group home, which will hold up to 12 people and provide round-the-clock care services.

Allyson Scerri, founder and president of New Beginnings, accepted the donation along with Sandi and Marshall Aykroyd, the parents of 25-year-old Brendan Akyroyd, a young TBI survivor who died in June 2011. The group home will be named in his honor.

Nancy Reyer, the mother of Michael Hubbard — the Riverhead teen who was severely burned and suffered brain injuries in a gel candle explosion in May 2011 — also attended the ceremony.

Michael, who turns 17 next week, has been guaranteed a room in Brendan House, Ms. Scerri said.

Ms. Scerri said the donation will help the group meet its goal, adding that the organization still needs to raise between $75,000 to $100,000 in additional donations to finish the project. Building supply companies and volunteers have already donated their time and materials for the project, cutting down on costs.

New Beginnings has now obtained all town permits needed to begin construction, Scerri said. The state health department has also issued the necessary approvals, she said.

“We’re ready to go,” Scerri said.

New Beginnings will hold its 5th Annual Summer Gala at the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead on Aug. 15. For more information on the event and how to donate to Brendan House, visit the New Beginnings website.

I often tell people there’s no greater place to cover news than in Riverhead.

This town has it all: diversity, a downtown in flux, agriculture, silly politics, great local sports and loyal residents who are passionate about the place they call home.

With all of this comes the good type of news and the bad. This town is heartwarming one day and heartbreaking the next. The past week provided the perfect example of this.

My wife, Vera, and I were camping near the Jersey Shore two years ago when we received word of the horrible gel candle incident that left Michael Hubbard badly burned. The breaking news reporter for the paper at the time, I remember Vera, the breaking-news reporter at the time, trying to report the news from the road. It was exactly the kind of story you hate to have to tell, the kind where everything changes for the worst for a young person with promise.

Ever since that day, we’ve enjoyed hearing little bursts of good news as Michael has experienced small victories in his long road to recovery. Two years later, his friends and family were able to celebrate his biggest win yet as he was returned home to Riverhead from the Westchester County facility where he had been cared for since September 2011.

As a great example of a community hospital looking out for one of its own, Michael is now being cared for at Peconic Bay Medical Center’s skilled nursing facility as he awaits the opening of Brendan House, a group care facility planned for Riverhead. (I’d be remiss to not mention the role riverheadlocal.com publisher Denise Civiletti played in connecting Michael’s family with the hospital, where she previously worked. She declined to accept credit when asked about it last week, but both Michael’s family and hospital officials say she was a critical piece of the puzzle.)

Michael’s move back home was among the best news for Riverhead in quite some time. It was only one day later, that this community received some of its worst news in awhile.

If you know that feeling of nervous tension you get deep in your stomach when you hear unexpected bad news, than you know exactly what I felt when I received a phone call Friday night from one of our reporters was who was on the scene of a fire at Athens Grill in downtown Riverhead.

It’s not that uncommon to hear volunteers responding to a kitchen grease fire at a local restaurant over the scanner. But this one, I was told immediately, looked real bad.

News that a local restaurant was lost in a fire would never be good, but I can’t think of too many places I’d less like to see destroyed than Athens Grill.

Opened in 2004, John Mantzopoulos’ restaurant was ahead of others in the push to revitalize downtown Riverhead. And despite the restaurant’s reputation for serving up great food, it was clear he wasn’t making a killing there.

Like a lot of businesses on East Main Street, Athens had seen some ups and downs, and I don’t think it would be a leap of faith for me to say the restaurant had seen more slow days than busy ones as revitalization efforts downtown have ebbed and flowed over the years.

Still, Mr. Mantzopoulos carried on in a town where many before him had packed up and taken their recipes elsewhere.

It would take a heart of concrete not to feel sorry for the man and his staff, or to the many other downtown business owners affected by the news that his restaurant burned.

But this is Riverhead, the place where you get knocked on your back one day and you’re up on your feet another. This is a place where despite its flaws and the cynicism that breeds, everyone loves a tale of rejuvenation. This is, after all, the home Michael Hubbard returned to.

I’m sure the fundraisers that are already in the works to help rebuild the restaurant will be a major success.

I look forward to the day when the Athens building is restored and the restaurant rises from the ashes. I look forward to my next plate of lamb meatballs.

Grant Parpan is the executive editor at Times/Review Newsgroup. He can be reached at gparpan@timesreview.com or (631) 354-8046.

Michael, who will turn 17 in August, was moved from Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Westchester County to PBMC Health’s Skilled Nursing Facility today, where he will be cared for until the opening of Brendan House, a group care facility planned for Riverhead.

“I’m excited, I really am,” said his mother, Nancy Reyer, who has been caring for Michael at the upstate facility. “It’s the next step in the journey. We’ll just take it from here. I am glad Michael can now see his friends and all the people who couldn’t travel upstate to see him before.”

Michael suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body after being burned by a gel candle that exploded in his backyard May 28, 2011. He went into cardiac arrest a week later, causing traumatic brain injury, as well as kidney failure and lung distress. Michael was originally taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center, but was moved to Blythedale that September.

Blythedale, a short-term care facility, could no longer keep Michael for the extended care he needs, his mother said. It left her looking for other facilities.

She was originally considering moving Michael to a hospital in Albany, before receiving a call from officials at PBMC Health.

“We knew the story of Michael, so we really wanted to do everything we could to get him here,” said Ronald McManus, senior vice president and administrator of the skilled nursing facility. “We knew how important it was for the family to get him home to Riverhead.”

The hospital sent two nurses, Marta Troyan and Wendy Dolan, upstate to visit Michael at Blythedale, to see if PBMC Health could accommodate him.

“They came back and they said, ‘Yes, we can.’ We will be able to take good care of him,” Mr. McManus said.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Ms. Reyer said of moving back to Riverhead. “My mom will be 92 in July, and now she’ll be able to see her boy.” Michael is her youngest grandson, she said.

Ms. Reyer credited Denise Civiletti of Riverhead LOCAL for reaching out to PBMC, and bringing Michael home.

“Denise has done more for this family than I can say,” Ms. Reyer said. “This experience has shown me that family doesn’t have to be blood. She has become my sister. She will always be family.”

While covering the homecoming Thursday, Ms. Civiletti downplayed her role in getting Michael to PBMC.

“I really didn’t do anything,” Ms. Civiletti said. “I just picked up the phone and told them about it.”

PBMC President and CEO Andrew Mitchell said finding a place for Michael to receive the care he needs is in line with the goals of the hospital.

“That has been the 60-plus year mission of the hospital,” he said.“The fact that he has been away from the community two years makes it that much more special that he’s coming home.”

Michael recently underwent a skin grafting procedure and he had the stitches removed from his head and chin at Stony Brook University Medical Center Thursday morning.

Just about two weeks ago, he spoke the word “Mom,” Ms. Reyer said. She said she thinks being in Riverhead will help with Michael’s transition into Brendan House.

Nearly 700 lacrosse players, from kindergarten to eighth graders, coaches and spectators were spread over the Riverhead School District athletic fields stretching rom Pulaski Street Elementary School to Riverhead High School for the first-time fundraiser ‘Lax for a Smile’ Saturday morning. The all-day event featured girls and boys teams playing 22 games to raise money for gel-candle burn victim Michael Hubbard and his mother Nancy Reyer. One-hundred percent of the money raised goes to them.

Michael Hubbard in April. (Photo courtesy of Nancy Reyer)

Leading up the effort was long-time Riverhead PAL coach Ed Lucas.”It is great to teach the kids about giving back to the community. If next year there is another worthy candidate we have the entity in place. If not we will do it for Michael again.” He went on the say that the name came from the fact that since Michael is disabled from his injuries he continues to flash his beautiful smile every time his mother asks for it.

Nick Bartolomeo, president of East End Marketing, which operates a dozen Valero gas stations within 10 miles of Riverhead, donated the ‘Lax for a Smile’ t-shirts that were given to all the players who participated. All proceeds from the concession stands, Chinese auction and Mother’s Day flower sales amounted to almost $10,000 by the end of the day Saturday.